Somewhere around 1970 two people moved to Portland from Taos.
I had been living in Portland for a couple of years after my four-year military stint had come to an end.
I had grown up in Portland.
So had one of the two people from Taos.
He was my best friend from grade-school through college.
The other person from Taos was an unknown quantity.
She was my friend's wife.
I didn't know that he was married.
I didn't know he was living in Taos.
In fact, I hadn't seen him since he stopped in Denver where I was stationed with the Air Force on his way back to Portland from wherever it was that he had fulfilled his active-duty military stint.
Vietnam had whipped all of America's young men into a patriotic frenzy back in those days.
Joe and I were lackluster participants on the fringe of the frenzy.
So, I was jogged into WTF-Land when Joe and a wife suddenly appeared in Portland from Taos.
They were in Taos because June is an artist, dominantly manifested by her painting.
But I suspect that she writes.
And who knows whatever else?
They were in Taos because June thought her prospects for being a painter were better in Taos than in Binghampton.
Joe was good at making frames for the paintings and talking to prospective patrons.
So they moved to Taos.
I have never known why they moved to Portland.
Or why Joe was in Binghampton.
Or, if I did, I have forgotten.
I have some paintings of June's from her late Taos/Early Portland Period.
Here is one.
